Death Comes for us All Eventually

{This is another post that I had written a long time ago and never posted. I don't know why}

The last photo of my little guineas. 

We started with 24 eggs. 18 keets hatched. Very quickly that number dwindled to 13 then 12.... and finally nine. 

At nine keets I was able to corral them all- and their parents into the secure coop in the barn. It's the coop that Aaron built for the last batch of baby guinea fowl. I kept them there for a month. I fed them, gave them lots of weeds and Aaron made an awesome perch for them. After a month, they were fully feathered and able to fly. So I decided to open the door and let them out. I left the door open so they could come back to roost if they wanted to. And they did a few times, but eventually they roosted in the big oak tree with the other guineas. 

After a while we were counting just eight young guineas. Then it dropped down to five in one day. And for a while the five were doing well. Then suddenly there were only three... and shortly after that we found the second to last guinea dead over by the chicken coop. We thought it was a hawk that got it and then one of the dogs (most likely Atticus) scared off the hawk and found the guinea's remains and brought it back to the chicken coop. 

For a good long time there was just the one. It was like that last year too- there is only one survivor from the last batch of guineas born in the "wild". I've named him Swifty. And the funny thing is that Swifty seemed to pair up with this last lone young guinea. They went everywhere together. And then I didn't see the little one for a whole day. I looked all week, but never saw it again and never found a body. 

It's unfortunate for the guineas, of which only eight adults are left. But look at it from the predator's point of view- here it is trying to survive and live and thrive and feed it's young. And those baby guineas are a good size dinner for most of the predators around here. They lived a happy and free life while they were alive. Many humans live longer yet cannot say the same thing.